


Off the Beaten Path

by TheSilverKing



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, no beta we die like Glenn, sorry for short chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:07:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22586104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSilverKing/pseuds/TheSilverKing
Summary: Edelgard, Ingrid, and Felix deal with distractions from their chosen life paths... but perhaps it isn't all bad
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Mercedes von Martritz
Kudos: 28





	1. Two of Them...?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published fic, please enjoy.

Chapter 1: Two of Them...?

Edelgard von Hresvelg... God, what a ridiculous name for someone to have in this day and time, regardless of its significance in some long ago time back when the country of Fodlan was but a newborn state, needing a hand to guide it. But that... that had been thousands of years ago. Nowadays, Edelgard wasn't anything special. Just a former student who'd recently passed her bar exam. What better way to celebrate than an actual bar, she guessed? Damn Dorothea for somehow roping her into this, even as the flirty, freshly minted Professor of Music at Garreg Mach University downed another cocktail and said something to the bartender that made the dark-skinned, clearly foreign lady laugh. Edelgard herself had to chuckle at her friend's antics, hoping she'd not get them kicked out.

As she turns back to her own drink, Edelgard sees something she'd never expected to see... The cobalt-haired professor from one of her undergrad electives walking in the door with a busty woman. Her hair was mint-green, and she looked decidedly somber, almost... dead-eyed standing next to the grinning Byleth. Edelgard recalls something Felix had said of his father once, after his brother had died. “He's had dead eyes ever since Glenn passed. Dead eyes with nothing behind them.” It seemed a good way to describe the minty-haired woman standing next to Byleth as well. Her matching mint-green eyes were flat. The more Edelgard studied the pair, the more she could see... something about them. She didn't even notice when they changed course and headed her way until Byleth's voice knocked her out of her own thoughts.  
“Edelgard?”  
She chokes on her drink. “Y-yes?”  
“What's got you in a place like this?”  
“Dorothea's idea of a celebration after I passed the bar. 'No better way to mark that achievement than a night on the best bar in town, Edie.' were her words, as I recall.”  
“I see... I don't believe I have had the pleasure of introducing you to my companion. Edelgard, my twin sister Beleth Eisner, Bells, Edelgard von Hresvelg.”  
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Eisner.”  
“The same, Miss Hresvelg. Please call me Beleth, instead of the nonsense my brother uses.”  
“As you wish, Beleth.”  
“She's a bit of a quiet one, but I'm sure the two of you will get along.”  
“I'm hardly in a position to run into--”  
“I'm a graduate student at the University in town, actually,” Beleth interjects.  
“She decided to move back after our father took a turn for the worse,” Byleth explains the mid-term transfer.  
“I see,” Edelgard hedges, hoping that her former professor didn't know about...  
“I'm sorry for your loss, Edelgard,” Dashed all of her hopes to not have to hear that empty platitude again. She'd heard it enough in the six months since her father died. Hell, the person who was the best about the whole situation was, ironically, Felix. He'd offered her an ear after the funeral, without a push. But... somehow, it felt different to hear that same old thing from her normally quite stoic former professor.  
“Thank you, Byleth.”  
And that's how Edelgard found herself sitting between twins of cobalt and mint, another drink in her hands that she didn't recall ordering. She heard herself laugh at something Byleth said, even Beleth cracking a smile at her brother's joke.

But, in her mind, she's still reeling that the professor she spent her Junior and Senior years of undergrad having a severe crush on, has a sister. A sister who's... Edelgard puts these thoughts down to the fact that she's had just a little too much to drink, and manages to hold it together through the rest of the night, even when the more expressive of the twins hugs her goodbye as she and Dorothea finally head home too late.


	2. Of Fights, Songs, and Shots

Felix Hugo Fraldarius comes home from work to find his father Rodrigue sitting at the kitchen table.  
“Finally back from your... work?” Rodrigue's voice is a bit condescending, though he doesn't realize it.  
Felix nods. “Yup. You didn't need to wait up, old man.”  
“Far be it from me to be concerned with my son, thinking he's squandering his potential. Why can't you join the family business? Police work is a good, honorable sort of job, and I know Gle--”  
The sound of bone striking flesh rings into the sudden silence of the kitchen, and it takes until realizing his arm is still extended for Felix to realize he's punched his father on autopilot.  
“Do not. Fucking. Use. Glenn's name. To guilt trip me into joining THE DAMN FORCE!”  
Felix bites off each word, ending on a shout. His father rises from his seated position, his face reddening in anger save for the rapidly purpling bruise on his cheek.  
“Felix. How many times must I say it, son? Your brother died well, with honor, serving his community--”  
“Bullshit,” Felix hisses. “He died trying to arrest a fucking meth head for thinking it was a good idea to get hopped up on his damn drug and screw his girlfriend in public. That's a lot of things, but 'honor' isn't the one I'd use.”  
“Felix Hugo Fraldarius, if there is one act I won't tolerate under my roof, it's disrespect not only to myself, but to the dead. Learn to respect other people instead of tearing them--”  
“I'm tired of listening to you prattle about respect when you won't even accept my decision not to join the force like all the rest of the fools in this family!”  
“Its a worthy...” Rodrigue falls silent as the door slams.  
Felix walks off at a brisk pace, pulling out his phone to scroll through his list of contacts. Surely... someone should be fine with him crashing on their couch for a day or two.  
First, he texts Sylvain.  
>Mind if I come crash at your place? The old man started his shit again and I bailed.  
Sylvain's response comes a few seconds later.  
>Sorry, Felix. I'm on a date, probably gonna be bringing her back later.<  
Felix sighs, the next name on his frequently contacted list being... Ingrid. She'd rip him a new one for the whole situation sparking because he got too pissed about his old man bringing up Glenn, what with the two of them having been engaged and all, but he asks anyway.  
Her response is short.  
>Can't. Out of town.<  
Maybe... Mercedes...  
>Sorry, Felix. I'm busy with a lab assignment tonight. Maybe you could ask Annie, she's home.<  
Felix groans. Annie was Mercedes' roommate. Her full name was Annette, and Felix was sure Mercedes had heard about the incident between the two of them. He'd walked into their apartment, catching the redheaded young woman singing a song about cleaning while she cleaned... Wearing a frilly apron Felix had until then put down as just being invented for French Maid costumes. Catching her cleaning in an apron he very much did not think was adorable would have been bad enough, but she freaked out more over the fact that he'd heard, as she put it, “my stupid song”. He'd actually tried to tell her it sounded nice, but this just earned him an angry pout, a “You're awful, Felix!” and being chased from the room with a broom. Oh well, desperate times and all. He sends her the message.  
Felix? Sure, I guess. As long as you don't yell at me too.  
He had to wonder why she'd think that, but it passes as he climbs into his car to drive over.  
Once he gets there, Annette unabashedly stares at his vehicle. “Wow! It's way nicer than anything my mom or I have ever had. Do you mind if I... look inside it?”  
“Sure, go ahead.”  
Annette plops herself down in the passenger seat, and its then that she hears Felix's stomach protest not having had dinner.  
“Hungry?”  
“A bit.”  
“I've got half a pizza left over from dinner... uh... if you want.”  
“...Sure.”  
After his quick dinner courtsey of Annette's leftovers, Felix beds down on the couch. His last thought before sleep claims him is that this apartment smells nicer than he remembered.  
\---Three Weeks Later---  
Felix was going to scope out an apartment and put down the deposit when his phone buzzed.  
“Hello?”  
“Felix, this is Dimitri.” Felix almost smashes his phone against the sidewalk, he does not want to talk to the boar right now.  
“Rodrigue's been shot.”  
Felix's phone drops from a suddenly shaking hand.


	3. Taking the Fun Out of Funerals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sylvain ruins a tender sort of moment amid the gloom of a funeral

Annette Fantine Dominic was fretting over how she looked to attend Rodrigue Fraldarius' funeral. She didn't have anything even as remotely fancy as she would have liked to have worn to something like this. Bringing this up to Felix was a critical failure, prompting the dark-haired man to comment offhandedly, “There's no need to dress up much, just dress like you're going to church... or something.”  
Annette ended up picking one of her more modest black dress skirts with a white top and her formal heels. She felt even sillier when she arrived to the layout at the local chapel of Seiros to realize that while most people were dressed in business attire, Felix himself was wearing his typical jeans, a black turtleneck, and the blue furred-necked coat that she rarely saw him without in the colder months.  
He said something stiffly to a man in a three piece suit that... oh God, no. No, no, no. Annette nearly panics. She turns to go back outside to wait the man—her father, out. But Felix catches sight of her and waves Gilbert off in his typical Felix way. Gilbert seems to be about to ignore him, but his molten amber gaze makes the older man hesitate and go the other way, to talk to Dimitri instead. Annette breaths a sigh of relief.  
“Thanks, Felix.” She offers with a small smile.  
“Don't mention it. He was bothering me, anyway.”  
“Oh?”  
“The same typical shit my dad liked to talk about. Tonight's not the night for it.” He unconsciously gives Annette a once over that makes her stomach feel a little funny.  
“I told you you didn't have to dress up.”  
“I didn't... didn't want to feel out of place,” Annette admits, a small blush rising in her cheeks.  
Felix chuckles, which makes her blush even more.  
“The both of us are out of place in a place like this,” is all he says before Mercie, in her formalwear, notices Annette and heads over to wrap the younger girl in a tight hug.  
“Annie, it's good to see you!”  
“You see me every day, Mercie...” Annette points out with a small grin.  
Mercie laughs before turning to Felix, “Felix, I'm so--”  
“Don't,” is his only reply, to which Mercie gives a small jolt, but slowly nods.  
“If you knew how many times I have heard that in the last few days, you would understand why I get the urge to kick anyone that says it.”  
“Right... Okay... Um. I am going to go check on Ingrid...” The nursing student says before excusing herself from the situation.  
Felix sighs heavily and Annette has to stifle the urge to also apologize for his loss.  
The two of them drift off from one another, Annette going over to say hi to a sobbing Ingrid, but she is quickly waved away by Mercie, who has her arm around the blonde girl's shoulder, and is rubbing comforting little circles on her back.  
 _If only Felix reacted like a normal person..._ Annette finds herself thinking before chiding herself for the callousness. Felix could grieve, or not, however he needed to.  
Annette loses track of him, and indeed most of the people she knows, in the sea of people she does not know. After getting a drink from a refreshment bar (Annette couldn't shake the feeling that this felt more like some kind of weird high society party than any funeral she had ever been to), Annette notices Felix grab his coat from a rack and head outside. She debates with herself for a few seconds before following hesitantly.  
“Um... Felix?” she calls softly before noticing him standing under a street light. “Hey, are you okay?”  
“Fine. Why would I be otherwise?”  
Annette blinks. “Just... a little worried about you, is all. If you ever need to... um... talk, well... Mercie always told me I'm a good listener. But... you don't have to if you don't want to, of course!”  
This brings a ragged chuckle bubbling forth from Felix's throat. “Damn, this change of pace is a little refreshing after the broken record of “I'm sorry for your loss” that I've heard the last two days.”  
“Excuse me?”  
“You're so earnest and open about this. Its the first reaction since I told Edelgard about it that wasn't just... canned shit. Even Sylvain told me he sends his fucking condolences. I'm kind of sick of hearing it.”  
“I... see? Most people get sad when...”  
Felix's voice is hardly a whisper.  
“Who's to say I'm not, and I just don't show emotion like everyone else wants?”  
Annette, seized by sudden impulse, wraps her arms around Felix in the most heartfelt, real display of affection for another person he's felt since his brother died ten years prior (even if he'd never say it).  
Felix is struck by a moment of surprise when Annette wraps him in a hug that belies more strength than her petite frame should have. He's also struck by... the same scent he recalls from the apartment days ago, once again thinking its nice before he can stop himself.  
Sylvain chooses precisely that moment to come outside, letting out a whistle as he sees the pair embraced beneath the streetlight.  
Felix makes a mental note to punch Sylvain later.


End file.
